Career

I was the first Attorney General of Switzerland to be elected by the Federal Parliament. At the Attorney General’s office, I introduced self-administration and strengthened the combat against white-collar crime with a focus on money laundering, corruption, organised crime and asset recovery. I also emphasised national and international cooperation.

The Liechtenstein Parliament elected me Chairman of the Board of Directors of the country’s Financial Market Authority in 2010. I went on to reorganise the authority’s governance and to manage regulatory implementation of EU Directives in financial market law.

As Chairman of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association, I played a key role in opening the Principality as a financial centre.

On behalf of the Liechtenstein government, I set up the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Principality’s first money laundering reporting office.

As part of the implementation of the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act, I established PolyReg, a self-regulatory organisation (SRO), and managed it alongside my activities as an independent lawyer.

I set up the Central Office for Organised Crime at what is today the Swiss Federal Office of Police fedpol in 1995. In this role, I was responsible for planning and setting up the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS).

In 1993, I took over as Head of the Special Investigations 1 section at the newly restructured Bernese cantonal police department.

After studying law at the University of Bern (Switzerland) and being admitted to the bar, I joined the Bernese judiciary in 1992 as one of the canton’s newly created examining magistrates.